Rio Olympic organizers pay visit to the Pan Am Games

Rio officials spent a couple of hours in Toronto on Saturday assuring all that everything is shaping up just fine for next Summer’s Olympic Games

It is less than 500 days until the cauldron is lit to open the 2016 Rio Olympics, test events are starting to gauge just how much work remains to be done and officials spent a couple of hours in Toronto on Saturday assuring all that everything is fine.

A delegation from the four levels of government that are overseeing the Summer Games told a Pan Am Games media conference they are well on their way to “transforming challenges into solutions.”

Whether they can accomplish all that successfully will depend on a more than year-long sprint to finish projects associated with the Games, that some estimates say could come in with a $13 billion (U.S.) price tag.

Marco Antonio Cabral, the secretary of sports for the state government of Rio de Janeiro, said a three-pronged process is underway to assure the Games come in on budget and on time.

He pointed “Games of transformation” that will revitalize the city, Games that will ultimately “save public money” by such things as easing time-consuming inner-city travel and Games that will be ready to open long before the Aug. 5, 2016, opening ceremony.

“We are well on the way to doing what we have to do, we are where we want to be,” Joaquim Monteiro de Carvalho, the president of the Olympic committee, said through an interpreter.

But it will not be easy and Rio officials are under intense scrutiny from the IOC.

A year ago, a senior ICO official said the preparations for the Games were the “worst I have experienced.” And while the IOC has toned down its public criticism, Rio organizers know there is no room for error.

“We are at the stage where everything is on schedule and will be within budget,” said Cabral.